New to DVD/VOD this week:
WHITE RIOT
Director:
Rubika Shah
World Premiere:
London 2019
Select Festivals:
Berlin, CPH:DOX, Edinburgh, Indielisboa, Krakow, Belgrade, Glasgow
About:
An in-depth look back at 1970s UK protest movement Rock Against Racism.
In the mid-1970s, the UK saw the rise of the National Front, a fascist political party fueled by xenophobia and racism and embraced by disenfranchised young white people eager for an identity. But overt racism was not just in the wheelhouse of NF’s skinheads, as Conservative MP Enoch Powell had spent years speaking out against immigrants, attracting admirers such as Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. In response, an agitprop theatre performer, Red Saunders, wrote an op-ed for Britain’s rock publications calling for musicians and their fans to take a stand against racism. Rubika Shah’s chronicle of Rock Against Racism’s activism is appropriately scrappy and energetic, borrowing its DIY aesthetic from the group’s zine-focused communications, and serves as a welcome reminder of the collective power of people to organize for positive change.
